Review

If your not familiar with the Fujifilm X-Pro1, it’s a souped up range finder that is sort of in direct competition with the Sony Nex cameras, because it offers an interchangeable lenses and its Mirrorless.

The Fujifilm X-Pro 1 uses the all new X-Mount system to accommodate their new lens line-up which consists of a 35mm f/1.4 lens, 18mm f/2 wide angle lens, and a 60mm f/2.4 Macro lens. In addition to this incredible fast lens line-up, Fuji makes a great product and develops it’s own camera sensors just like Sony. In fact Sony considers Fuji their top competition as far as innovation and sensor technology is concerned.

Notes Specific to this Review

I’m going to take the approach of comparing the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 to the Sony Nex-7 and Nex-5n when applicable as I know many of you are not sure where to invest your money. Where talking High ISO abilities, dynamic range abilities, image quality, build quality and sensor sharpness due to the X-Trans technology which eliminates the need for the Anti Aliasing filter found on most other sensors including the Sony Nex-7 and Nex-5n.

This is going to be a Continuous Review as I have the camera for a few more weeks and I need to learn Fujifilm camera system, try all the features, and test it for all the regular criteria I normally do. This reviewing method is not the norm or me, but I want to give it a go and see how it works out. You can also ask questions or provide requests as this review evolves over the next few weeks, so get involved if you like in the comment area!!

Now, I don’t have advanced sensor testing methods like DXOMark.com for example, but I will try and compare the Fuji X-Pro 1 sensor to the Sony sensors as best I can using real world and perhaps some “Lab” testing. I really want to know if this APS-C sensor is a good as it’s expected to be, but even more importantly how it compares to the Sony APS-C sensors!!

Official Features and Overview

The Fujifilm X-Pro1 (a.k.a. Fujifilm XPro1) is Fujifilm’s newest camera which seems like the next step in a logical progression that began last year with the Leica-esque, high-resolution X100, followed by the smaller-sensor-based X10, a street-savvy little camera with a similarly retro feel. The X-Pro1 is a new interchangeable-lens compact camera that appears ready to take on that moreexpensive rangefinder camera. The X-Pro1 will hit the market with a range of three X-Mount lenses-an 18mm (27mm equivalent on a 35mmsensor camera) f/2, 35mm (53mm equivalent) f/1.4 lens, and a 60mm (91mm equivalent) f/2.4 macro lens. Lens diaphragm blades are curved for pleasing bokeh. The company says nine more lenses will be rolled out within the next three years, and that an M-mount adapter is in the works.

The camera is built around a newly-developed CMOS sensor that Fujifilm claims is capable of resolution that is superior to other APS-C sensors. A new color filter array eliminates the need for a low-pass filter that is inspired by the random arrangement of finefilm grain. This pattern is supposed to eliminate moire and provide truer colors.

More Technical Notes about Features:

By enhancing aperiodicity (randomness) in the array arrangement, the color filter minimizes generation of both moire and false colors, eliminating the necessity for an optical low-pass filter in the lens and enabling X-Trans CMOS sensor to capture full “unfiltered” lens performance

The EXR Processor Pro is supported by an integrated co-processor for higher speed and higher precision image processing performance

The optical low-pass filter prevents the occurrence of moire and false colors but results in a loss of resolution

A higher degree of randomness with an array of 6 x 6 pixel units. Without using an optical low-pass filter, moire and false colors are eliminated while realizing high resolution. Inspired by the natural random arrangement of the fine grains of silver halide in film

Designed especially for the X-Pro 1, the FUJINON XF Lens series promises enhanced resolution and light volume in image edge areas as well as reduced chromatic aberration for exceptional image quality

Taking full advantage of the mirrorless design, the mount boasts a short 17.7mm flange back distance, a wider opening and deeper mounting of the lens, resulting in reduction of back focus distance to the minimum possible while achieving high resolution extending to the image edge areas

Featuring the freedom to switch between an optical and electronic viewfinder, the Hybrid Viewfinder has evolved to meet the challenges of interchangeable lenses

Viewfinder magnification automatically changes when an XF series lens is mounted and because there is very little noticeable difference in the angle of view when switching between OVF and EVF, viewing in either mode is smooth and natural

Fujifilm X-Mount Lens Line-up w/ Specs

XF Lens

Designed especially for the X-Pro 1, the FUJINON XF Lens series promises enhanced resolution and light volume in image edge areas as well as reduced chromatic aberration for exceptional image quality. Featuring an all-glass aspherical lens and other elements, the lens is polished to perfection and treated with Super EBC coating. Holding the high-quality metal barrel and operating the precision-machined 1/3-step aperture ring is a sensation that fires the desire to capture every scene. For photographers who seek the peak of photographic excellence, Fujifilm raises the curtain on a new era of interchangeable lenses and unveils a premium line up of 3 single-focal length lenses (lenses not included with camera body)

A wider opening and deeper mounting of the lens:

Back Focus:1.Specifically designed to maximize the mirrorless design of the body, the X-Mount has a short flange back distance of just 17.7mm. This means the rear lens elements are as close as possible to the sensor. The wide opening allows the lens to be mounted deeper within the body – up to 7.5mm (approx) from the mount surface – reducing the back focus distance of each lens to the minimum possible, thus achieving high resolution all the way to the edge of the image.XF18mm / Back focus distance: 11.0mm
XF35mm / Back focus distance: 21.9mm
XF60mm / Back focus distance: 21.0mm

Fujifilm X-Pro 1 – Product Shots from the “Lab”

A few shots of the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 in Action at the Rally Racing last weekend:

Fujifilm X-Pro 1 w/ 18mm f/2 Lens

Fujifilm X-Pro 1 w/ 18mm f/2 Lens

Fujifilm X-Pro 1 – Build Quality and Design

What I noticed immediately with the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 was the actual physical size of the camera body. It’s very large in comparison to any of the Sony Nex cameras and weighs almost double the Nex-7 (= 292g), at 450g (body only). However, with that weight and size comes one of the most rugged cameras I’ve ever held in my hands!! The camera is solid as a rock and feels like I could hammer a nail into tree with it, no joke!

The 3 inch RGBW (White) LCD monitor with approx. 1,230,000 dots and 100% viewing coverage, is probably the best I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to say for sure without a and b’ing them, but I’m telling you this screen is incredible crisp and dynamic. Surprisingly though, the LCD screen protrudes out of the back making it much more likely to get scratched and bumped. Seems like it should have a thicker border/ bumper at the very least to offer a little more screen protection considering the rest of the camera is so incredible durable and well built.

I personally like the Retro style of the Fujifilm, but looks are totally a personal thing. I also like the Ultra Modern Nex-7 look so…

Holding the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 in my hands it feels pretty big, but comfortable. Lite compared to a DSLR, but it has hefty feel to in a rangefinder form factor. Again, coming from the Nex-7 that makes sense, but I just want to make sure you know where I’m coming from.

The hand grip on the right side of the camera is a bit small for my liking. I much prefer a deeper SLR style grip for my fingers to wrap around as it makes holding with one hand much easier. Like when the camera is down at your side for example. I’m not sure if it was a style design or an engineering decision, but it’s worth noting in my opinion.

A few more Design Special Mentions

A few things I noticed that seemed worth special mention as far as the design/ build quality goes besides the LCD screen and grip mentioned above.

The tri-pod mount on the bottom of the X-Pro 1 is off center from the lens

Battery not keyed, so it can go in either with door closed

The Memory card/ battery door has the same Nex-7 style slide lock. Please make this a push close style like the SLR’s!!

The memory card itself is kinda tuff to get in and out as it’s on the door hinged side. Why not hinge the door on the opposite side of the memory card? Sony does the same thing for some reason.

Tons of physical buttons and dials to make camera changes, Huge Plus!!

Hybrid Multi View Viewfinder

Moving on to the Hybrid Multi Viewfinder; its very nice, and I find the optical view feature a nice addition, but certainly not a necessary as it has a great EVF. The viewfinder its not center on the camera though, so when your in optical view mode you see the lens to the right with the 18mm wide angle lens mounted. You can flip then little view toggle on the front of the camera and turn on the overlay information when in optical view mode! That is awesome and took me a minute to figure out. The EVF is great! Not a s good as the Nex-7 OLED, but it looks very good and it overlays all the important camera info for you. Simple pressing the View mode button on the back will also switch the View modes for you.

Hybrid Multi Viewfinder

Menu System:

When comparing the Fujifilm X-Pro 1’s Menu system to the Nex-7, the X-Pro 1 is definitely catered more towards the professional user. The Fujifilm X-Pro 1 has one of the most in depth menu systems I’ve ever seen and reminds me of my Canon 5D mark II. This is a great thing speaking as a professional photographer, but it can be incredible daunting for a beginner. This is major difference between the Sony Nex menu systems which are picture based beginner oriented in my opinion.

The Q Button is great and gives you access to pretty much everything you need and evolves depending on what Mode your in. I really liked it and used it primary to change the menu settings I needed such as ISO.

AutoFocus and Shutter Lag

Pretty fast and accurate!! On average I would say it’s a bit faster than the Nex-7 and Nex-5n as far a focus confirmation goes. Also, when the X-Pro 1 cannot focus it tells you almost immediately without hunting around for seconds trying to find something. This is great, because you know right away whether you need to change your AF point, or perhaps switch to manual focus without any wasted time. The Sony’s tend to hunt around much longer in my experience leading you to believe it may achieve focus only to eventually fail. It’s pretty predicitable though when the camera is going to struggle, so I usually just use manual focus and then magnify zoom to fine tune it.

Once auto focus is complete, release time lag is the delay between fully pressing the shutter release and when the camera actually starts taking the picture. Long lag makes it harder to capture fast-moving objects. The Sony NEX-7 boasts the shortest release time in the world (as of August 2011) at only 0.02 second while the Fujifim X-Pro 1 trails behind at 0.05second which is very noticeable with moving objects!!

Check all this out in the detailed HD Video below! Also be sure to select the 720p option for the best viewing experience!! It’s in the player preferences (looks like a gear on bottom right once the movie starts)

Fuji X-Pro 1 – Image Quality

The Fijufilm X-Pro 1 took a slightly different direction than the norm when it comes to their color filter array. Basically they completely changed the pattern making it more random. This allows for the Anti-Aliasing filter to go bye bye, as it normally corrects issues caused by the color filter pattern. In theory the image quality should be a bit sharper than sensors with the filter, because the light has to travel through less filters.

I’ve taken a bunch of photos so far and the image quality is consistently excellent across the board in my opinion. The Jpegs are not over-processed at all which is nice as the creative modes can easily add more saturation for you if you want. The sharpness is also excellent across the board. The images are incredible sharp in fact, especially in the center area. I’ll go into more specific image quality details as I go through the sample photos below

Sample Pics

Just to let you know their is no raw converter program out their for the Mac yet unfortunately. Adobe is working on it, and so are the other after market companies and the Fujifilm software is limiting for Mac just like the Sony software. Hmm strange similarity.

What that means is I’m going to shoot Raw + Jpeg or just Jpeg format from now on as the raw files are just sitting unreadable taking up my hard drive space..

One of the first photos I took believe it or not were of Layla’s Easter Basket on Sunday Morning The light was poor and figured it was a good time to try out some High ISO shots. I set the camera from Raw to Jpeg Fine and then the grayed out High ISO’s of 12800 and 25600 were then available for selection. They don’t work in raw I guess, or I need to turn something on that I have not figured out yet.

High ISO Jpeg Fine

As always, be sure to CLICK on the photos for the large and crisp 100% crop version!!

From what I can see these images look great and are on par with the Nex-5n High ISO abilities in JPEG mode. The X-Pro 1 seems to go less far on the post processing than the Sony and I personally tend to like this. Sharpening applied to the Fujifilm JPEGs is less although the noise reduction applied is pretty high just like the Sony’s when shooting High ISO. The Fujifilm JPEGs are also much saturated than the Sony’s for sure.

Check this shot out of this highly detailed building just down the road from where we live. The scene has a lot of dynamic range and I had the metering mode of the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 set to Average Metering. Focus was on Auto and in the center of the frame.

This photo is looking down the road behind me towards the sun and clouds that were lighting the building above. The dynamic range in this scene was off the charts and the sky clipped out on the upper left. The shadows are also pretty dark, but for a scene like this on average metering it looks pretty good to me.

Here’s a few more snapshots from around the house that really show off what the Fujifilm can do in the real world. For example, if you’ve ever tried to take a picture of a moving child, you know what I mean!! Layla never stops moving and with the slight shutter lag of the X-Pro 1 I wanted to see what kind of hit rate I would get. Overall, with the 18mm wide angle lens it was pretty easy although a bit distorted for portraits

As always, be sure to CLICK on the photos for the large and crisp 100% crop version!!

Fujifilm 18mm f/2.0 XF R Lens

I’m really liking the fast Fujifilm 18mm f/2.0 XF R Lens big time. The Bokeh is really creamy and reminds me of the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 a bit. I also like the fact that it has a minimum focus distance of 8.0cm, which allows you to take advantage of the sensor resolution more by getting close to your small subject. In addition, being able to focus close to objects is the best, and easiest way to exploit the incredible Depth of Field that this lens and camera combo offers.

The sharpness is excellent in the center of the frame wide open at f/2 and softens a bit towards the corners. I still need to do some “lab” style testing to compare the aperture’s and exact sharpness fall off, etc.. but overall the lens is a solid performer in my opinion and I would totally buy it. The build quality is rugged style, just like the camera body, and doesn’t look afraid of much!

I got a chance to take a few more pics over the last few days and I think these highly detailed shots will add a nice real world variety to the mix. They will also highlight some lens flaws a bit in the process as well.

Check out this awesome sculpture in a nearby industrial park. These guys are clearly masters at the art of welding!! Specific to the photos though, check out the detail that the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 is able to retain using the 18mm lens @ f/8 in aperture priority mode ISO 400, handheld. In the 100% Crops you will see some noticeable blue Chromatic Aberrations on the high contrast edges where the metal meets the sky.

As always, be sure to CLICK on the photos for the large and crisp 100% crop version!!

Lastly for Today I wanted to show you one more image I cropped as a pano just cause I thought it made for a stronger comp. I love the way the Bokeh is rendered by the Fujifilm 18mm lens, and the senor can handle a lot of dynamic range!!

Dinner the other night was Awesome!! Michele and I watched the Sandwich King the other night and the Burgers looked incredible so we did our best The Lighting is pretty bad in this snapshot as natural light is coming in from camera left and the Tungsten light is above the Burger creating all sorts of white balance issues in the shadows and highlights.

Conclusion

The Fujifilm X-Pro 1 is an extremely well built tank of a mirrorless camera!! It’s overall larger and heavier than the Sony Nex-7, but it still so lite compared to a DSLR that the weight difference isn’t that noticeable to me at all when actually using it with the XF F/2 18mm lens. The 18mm lens is very lite and was the only lens I used for this review. That is important as it pertains to the Autoficus, because it worked pretty dam good for me with that lens and you can see it for yourself in the video above. With the larger lenses, especially the 60mm Macro, the Autofocus is much slower and hunts around more. I’ve read this on other reviews and forums and in the comments below, but with the 18mm XF f/2 lens the Auto Focus works really good in almost all the situations I through at it. It did struggle a bit on the pool shots on the fence railing, but I simple moved the AF point and it locked right on.

The Image quality on the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 using the 18mm lens is excellent. The colors, dynamic range, noise, and sharpness are all on par with the Sony Nex Cameras with a good lens attached. The Jpeg files are a little better on the fujifilm in my opinion and appear more natural in the colors and sharpness . I am a Rawshooter though, so I’m used to seeing that type of file come of cameras so keep that in mind. As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, I could not process the Raw files off the Fujifilm X-pro 1 so I shot all jpeg default. I could have in hindsight used the built in raw converter and pumped out jpegs using different developing settings, but I did not have time to try this feature unfortunately.

The High ISO images are heavily noise reduced just like the Sony’s, and they retain most of the detail as far as usability in the real world goes. I wouldn’t be using images higher than ISO 6400 in the real world most likely, but the option to go higher is nice!

The Fujifilm X-Pro 1 costs ~$1700 US at the time of this review and to spend that kind of cash your going to be a Pro most likely or hardcore hobbyist looking for the best. Fuji was thinking the same thing I believe for a number of reasons. The manual settings for the shutter and aperture are catered to the professional, the menu system is deep and designed with a Pro in mind, and the lens line-up has top quality optics to complete the package. Another nice pro oriented feature of the X-Pro 1 is the built in Hot Shoe which makes using studio lights and pro-grade flash units very easy.

The Fujifilm X-Pro 1 makes for a great investment if you have the cash for it and know how to use a camera. I personally fall into the category of “It’s a bit to expensive for what you get”, but if I had the money I would consider it as the lens line-up is very strong. Image quality is in my opinion about the same as the Sony Nex-5n if you boil it all down. I honestly can’t give an edge one way or another as both cameras take phenomenal pictures. The Fujifilm X-pro 1 is so much more expensive though if you look at from an image quality stand point per buck. Just y opinion mind you

If your looking for the best bang for the buck image quality and features wise, I recommend checking out my Sony Nex-C3, Nex-5n, or Nex-7 Hands on Reviews!! The Sony products in my opinion are a better bang for the buck even though the E-mount Lens line-up is a bit weak at the moment to say the least.

Please feel free to ask questions if you have any, and I hope you all got something out of this Hands on Review of the Fuji X-Pro 1!! Stay Tuned for the New Sony Alpha 57 and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 Lens, which is on its way to the “Lab” as I type this!! Should be a fun camera and lens combo to review I think.

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20 Comments

Look forward to the full review and comparisons. Couple of small nit picks, you have the price under the product overview at the top as $1300 instead of the $1700 you have in the rest of the article. Also the X-Pro1 has a APS-C sensor, not micro4/3.

I’m sitting here with both the Nex7 and Xpro1. Your comment regarding AF being way faster on the Xpro1 is untrue. Every person that has commented on this camera confirms AF is slow. It is very slow. I also confirm this. The Nex7 smokes the xpro1 when it comes to auto focusing. I can’t fault the superb image quality from the xpro, but please don’t tell me AF beats the Nex7!

WOW, that is odd. I have not read anything about it regarding the AF. I just started using it cold.

I would swear it’s faster at focusing than the Nex-7 or 5n. They both hunted to focus where the X-Pro 1 has yet to do that to me. Mind you I’m using an ultra wide angle 18mm lens, so pretty much anything will register and focus.

I’ll do som testing on some lower contrast stuff and see how she does

My Nex-7 is all apart in the “Lab” still. Now when I say Autofocus, I mean the time it takes for the confirmation beep, not taking the actual picture.

Also I’m comparing the flexible spot metering of the Sony Nex-7 and Nex-5n which from what I can tell so far is slower. The shutter Lag however, seems much faster on the Nex-7.

If you think I’m a Liar, then why are you here? I’m telling you my honest opinion. If you want me to do a Google search and then right what I find on Google for my review, what good would that do me you or anybody else? What incentive to I have to say the Fuji “appears” to be focus faster at AF so far for my limited experience using the 18mm wide angle.

Please, If your going to continue to call me a Liar, I’m going to have to ask you to stop posting here please. Again, I have no reason to lie so just go elsewhere as my reviews are clearly not for you.

I recently updated the About Us page if you want to get a better handle on my background etc..

I’m coming to this review a bit late but l feel the need to make a comment about AF. Certainly, this has become a talked about issue with the X-Pro 1 among those who are obsessed with “Tech Specs”. However, it seems it is not a big issue for – and here l upset a few people – real photographers. I haven’t used the X-Pro 1 yet but l do have an X100. It had similar criticisms from certain people but has never been a problem for me. I think anyone who is a good photographer with an appreciation of how cameras work will have no problems. (And there will be firmware updates.)

Thanks for taking the time to comment, and your absolutely correct. When you boil it down to the pulp, the Autofocus works great overall and will do the job for pretty much anything just like the Nex-7 and Nex-5n.

If you are a photographer, getting the shot will not be an issue as this camera is more than capable.

However, the argument of which camera is better will always go on. We as humans need a winner, so I can totally understand the fuss to a degree, especially when your spending this kind of cash for a camera!! I would still get the Nex-7 over this camera for a variety of reasons, but you cannot argue that the Fujifim X-Pro 1 takes a phenomenal picture and is built like a tank!!

Jay, thanks for pulling together a very good review and some sample photos for us to look through! It’s encouraging to hear about how fantastic the sensor is, and that Fuji’s new color filter array is getting the job done in lieu of an anti-aliasing filter. Your comment about the build quality being so good that it could be used to pound a nail into a tree had me cracking up.

While his delivery leaves a lot to be desired, poster Alan’s is essentially correct about many other reviewers mentioning problems with the AF speed. It might be because they were often testing with the 35mm or the 60mm. It makes sense that the pancake 18mm might be much quicker to focus if that’s the only lens you had for review. I also see on your extreme dynamic range test (the photo with the road and clouds), there is no chromatic aberration in the upper left of the photo around the wires. Good to know that this is not a universal problem with the 18mm lens.

I do have a question: A couple of my friends now have the camera, and they’ve commented about being annoyed with the “chatter” of the lens, saying that it’s constant and relatively noisy (as in while shooting a wedding inside a church). Again, I believe this might be the 35mm lens they’re talking about. Can you comment at all on this? Thanks!

I’m working on producing the video I recorded for “Lab” Autofocus testing I just did. That will show you how it performs live with the 18mm lens on a few different subjects.

It is a bit chattery when it focus back and forth and you will here that in the video as it focuses if you listen close. It also makes a chatter type sound sometimes when just moving the camera around which seem to coincide with the exposure in the scene changing. I’m not sure what the exactly is making the noise when the exposure changes, but it does. Perhaps something is adjusting inside the camera or lens to correct for the LCD screen exposure? I was thinking it might me the aperture by I doubt that as it sounds like the focus.

What the chatter reminds me of is when you have the focus set to continuous and it is constantly creeping around. It’s not constant though. That is about the best way I can think to describe it. It’s by no means load though and compared the the Shutter Mechanism on a regular SLR it’s extremely quite. I would not worry about using at a wedding at all as far as noise.

Also, I should be getting the 60mm in about a week, so I’ll update anything in regards to the auto focus once I use that lens a bit.

It is the aperture iris hunting through different settings as the scene changes, or you move the camera around. Adjusting for the exposure automatically it looks like. I had the lens set to f/5.6 manually and it was still doing it.

I could clearly see it when I aimed the lens up while looking at the front of the camera outside.

I also tested the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with the 3 prime lenses, I am impressed with the camera and agree with your review almost in full except for the fact that the focusing is irritatingly slow on my unit. I hope this is just unique to the camera I tried on.

Thanks for taking the time to comment and share your experience with the Fujifim X-Pro 1. It’s nice to hear you have all 3 lenses and I’m really curious if the AF is any better on the 18mm lens vs the other 2 lenses in your experience? I only have the 18mm unfortunately for my review, so any info you can share about the other 2 lenses would be appreciated. Also, is it the AF specifically that is slow or the “Lag time” after the focus achieved and the shot is taken?

I can confirm that the recent firmware corrected the chatter. I no longer hear the “click click” of the lenses (the 35mm was a bit noisier than the 18 and now is really quiet). The really annoying thing about Fuji’s firmwares is that they wipe all of your customized settings, and this particular firmware consists of 4 files: one for the body and one for each lens (3x). So don’t bother entering all of your settings again until you update all of the lenses (and body).

Regarding, the AF I find it just fine in good lighting conditions, however it may struggle a little in low light, mostly the 60mm more so than the other 2 lenses. For moving and not-moving targets, I tried this “trick” with the 35 and 18 (as well as the X100) and it really works: http://picabroad.com/2012/04/10/fuji-x-pro-1-autofocus-trick/

I’ll give it a try with the 60mm when I have a chance. Anyway, it’s a great camera if somewhat challenging at times but if you take the time to learn and understand it it’s very rewarding and best of all, lots of fun!

Awesome!! Thank you so much for sharing your detailed experience and with the Fuji X-Pro 1 with us all That link you provided is also excellent and I highly recommend checking it out if you own this camera!!

Hi X Pro 1 lovers & detractors, I read many comments in numerous comments and found the answer to the apparently slow AF. It’s not totally true. In fact I can nail focus with .5-1sec max. Just put on either S or C focus, press confidently and fully down in a single movement. Even though the initial display is out of focus, by the time the next display with shot /s taken, it usually 90%+ sharp for me. What about the other 10%-? very likely my abrupt press or light is way too dim. I am so impressed by the results that I dont see it slower than my D700.

I use the Ricoh GXR and Sony NEX 5 as well as the XP 1 with 35 lens. All have their strength and weaknesses. Right now, the XP1 is getting almost all my attention. So much so that I have essentially ignored my Nikon DSLRs and Leica Digilux 2. Best low light the XP1 n D700. And here it appears to be THE ONE that I have been looking for. The 35mm lens alone is worth the price of entry. No purple fringing, smearing and a great discrete street camera. Less stealth like than the NEX with it’s smallish 16mm lens and Ricoh GXR with it’s 50mm but very flexible with its Simulated Film bracketing which the other two doesn’t have. Best of all for one who hates post processing, I don’t miss having RAW files. Yet… Expensive? Not really when compared to a comparable (?) Leica system. And I can’t wait to use the M mount adapter. Of course the GXR has the wonderful dedicated M Mount. It has peripheral light and precise color adjustment that neither XP1 nor NEX has. It is not faster than the XP1. The NEX 7 controls may be more assessable than the 5 but the corner issues for wide lenses is putting me off it for now. The tradition
layout of the XP1 is simply so familiar. Plus it OVF is something no other camera has! The Oly EM 5 is getting all the attention now. Check out the shoot out at Khai’s video and you need little convincing that the XP1 still reigns supreme. The fast 35mm lens with it’s narrow DOF is unbeatable. Micro 4/3 lenses can now go super fast but it’s chip is still smaller. Like they say, the taste of the pudding is in its eating. And for now, the XP 1 is the most delicious dish. Especially for portraits and landscapes. Surely not for fast foodies. That I go to my D700 and D7000. Have fun!

Nice review Jay, thanks. I do have 2 Fuji’s the X100 and the X20 – I love the build quality of both and the looks are awesome. The X20 comes close to the RX100 but not quite and then of cause it has a lens cap
The X100 is unique and in some ways fun to use – but very frustrating when it comes to auto focus speed and the silly macro distance – the camera should be now smart enough these days to determine if it needs to go into macro mode – even little point and shoot’s do that and now I hear with the X100s that it is not much of an issue as even though the Macro button is there – there is never a need to use it which makes no sense then to have it. I do love the NEX system and have the NEX7 and 5n but have not been impressed with lenses so far – of course not talking about the very expensive Zeiss glass which I just think is to much – I love the Fuji kit lens that starts at F2.8 – that is class – and I hear the F.14 is awesome – seems also the build quality of the Fuji lenses is better – but not having IS is a concern. I do love my OMD-5 with IS built into the body as I can get either Olympus lenses or Panasonic lenses and it is all IS. I just wish Olympus came out with a OMD-5 with APS-C sensor as there is so much good in the OMD-5 like the menu system. I do find the Fuji X menu system OK – a least much nice than the NEX menu system – just to not care for it like so many others. The RX100 menu system is better. So I have been wondering about the X-E1 and the X-PRO1 now for some time – now the price on the X-PRO1 has come down drastically or to a reasonable price – and I understand and can see from your testing that the auto focus speed is much improved – the X100 auto focus speed is terrible – X20 is awesome – I do love the dual view viewfinder that the X100/s and the X-PRO1 have so that is one of the big things why I would take the X-Pro1 over the X-E1 as now the price is so similar –
So I am very impressed with the X line from Fuji and do like their lenses minus no IS – I love the button layout and menu system and of course the special Fuji colors, good for skin tones but I would use NEX7 for landscape any day.
I also think Fuji is missing an all around lens like a 18-200 or even a 18-110 – they only have the 18-55 and then a 55-200 – I really do think that all around lenses like the Panasonic M4/3’s 14-140 or 28-280 or the Sony 18-200 or the Tamron emount 18-200 are so close to say the 55-200 lenses that it makes no sense to have to carry 2 lenses unless one has two bodies –
I suspect that the X-Pro2 that is supposedly coming out later this year or early next year will be $2000 – now the Xpro-1 is $1199 body only and you can get $300 of the kit lens 18-55 F2.8 so $1199 plus $399 – but one can also get the X-E1 for $1199 with the kit lens –

I really do want to sell my X100 due to slow focus and get the X-PRO1 or the X-E1 – but both have their issues as well – like the X-E1 viewfinder lag etc.

My point is that if only the Fuji X20 had an APS-C sensor and interchangeable lenses then it would be a darn good camera it is a lot of fun to use and super fast auto focus just to small of a sensor.

So it is a big question what to do – wait and hope prices on the new updates and hope prices will not go up much or take advantage of better prices now but live with slower performance and quirks now

but nice to see this auto focus test as it has been talked about so much -

Thanks very much for the reply John, Sorry I missed it and did not reply sooner. I really enjoy reading your comments and experience on all the cameras you have and use. Great first hand real world user experience

I like the new Fuji X-A1 with the articulating screen and low $599 price point. Great value and alternative to the Sony 5-series if you don’t need the touchscreen. The X-Pro2 will certainly be a heavy hitter in the ball field, and Fuji may just go touch screen after all??